Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Robert on Burton's Alice soundtrack

Robert has contributed a cover of Very Good Advice to the soundtrack for Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland. The album, entitled Almost Alice, will be released on March 2nd. Details at MySpace Music, and check out the original version of Very Good Advice at Twentyfourbit. (Thanks AndrewV127)

Update: More articles about it at NME and Slicing Up Eyeballs.

61 comments:

  1. That was quick Craig!

    Shame about all the Emo bands on the soundtrack though.

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  2. Wow, great surprise, can´t wait to hear the new RS track, hope it won´t be only instrumental.

    This is what i need now:

    A GOOD ADVICE

    to get rid of this...

    :(

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  3. I'm not a big Alice in Wonderland fan, but I'll have to hear this song.

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  4. this movie looks crap and so does the soundtrack.

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  5. Yeah Tim has been wanting to do some kind of collaboration with Robert for a while now. He mentioned it after the NME awards last year.

    Although I do believe it has gone back way further than that. Roger mentioned how Tim wanted the band to do something for Edward Scissorhands and Robert may have tried to do some score work for Sleepy Hollow.

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  6. after waching the youtube clip, i'm sure it'll be interesting.

    And I agree that the song really does suit Robert and his voice!

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  7. OH YES. Something new :o) ok only a cover but a cover from Robert!

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  8. Ugh, what a crap list of bands! It makes Robert look kind of sad jammed in there with that craptastic list of pig vomit. But if it gives Smitty's ego a shot in the arm I guess it's a good thing for him.

    "A collaboration with Tim Burton..." yeah right.

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  9. Sorry... that was overly harsh. I agree the song would work with Robert's voice. It just seems "off" putting Robert/the Cure among those other bands. I'm sure numerous fans (me, for instance) find that stuff mundane (at best), and fans of the other bands might not even know or care who Robert Smith is. So, why?

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  10. This is a LONG shot, but possibly Robert is an admirer of Tim and vice versa...

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  11. It's not a long shot at all. Tim Burton actually presented Robert with the NME Godlike Genius award last February, and spoke at length about how much of a fan he is of the Cure and how their music saved his sanity when he was trapped as a Disney animator drawing "cute fluffy animals".

    Additionally, Edward Scissorhands appearance is widely known to be based on Robert's look.

    In the previous version (Bloodflowers era) of the Cure's website, Robert listed some of Tim's films such as "Nightmare before Christmas" in his favorites list.

    I'd say the mutual admiration is pretty solidly established at this point.

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  12. the 'LONG shot' bit was VERY sarcastic of me ;)

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  13. LOL Joe. Sarcasm is hard to discern in plaintext haha!

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  14. ah Rev!!! no sarcasm aimed at you, I promise!! But i did think capitalizing 'LONG' would have given it away!! I have an interview CD from the Wish era (that i liberated from a record shop back in 1992-93) in which Robert talks about Tim's request for The Cure on Edward, Robert said they were too busy making Disintegration.

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  15. I will go out on a whim here and say that Robert is possibly the only artist on the list that Tim specifically requested to do a song. I assume the others were the chosen by Disney.

    Also, it's not known how (or if) these songs will manifest in the movie. I'm sure Danny Elfman is providing a full score so this just may be released as an album of music "inspired by" the film.

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  16. Andrew: Yeah, just got confirmation that there will be two cds - the film soundtrack by Elfman, and the cd of "re-imagined" songs from the original. So I'm guessing they won't actually be in the film.

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  17. so...is that robert's first ever solo effort under his own name then?

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  18. I think it is. Unless I'm forgetting something.

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  19. no, the first solo song its pictures of you from the soundtrack
    one perfect day
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0316353/soundtrack

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  20. that was released under The Cure, it's a Cure song....this I'm sure is the FIRST ever SOLO release..

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  21. @JoeLom - I realize this. Still, it seems like a pretty meaningless way to express mutual admiration.

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  22. re: that pictures of you version, that is thankfully the first and hopefully the last i will ever hear it. ugh.

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  23. Wow! Tim's dream finally came true!! He should have asked them to do the whole lot..

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  24. Just afterthought.. the song will go under whatever label the soundtrack is on, is that right? So does the group need any representation if it's just for a soundtrack? lf so he'll probably just use Suretone..

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  25. I imagine contractual obligations prevented 'the cure' releasing something on disney's label...

    Releasing it under his own name probably affords some ability to experiment a bit more also...

    songs like perfect blue sky / da hype / believe / all of this... were credited as 'featuring Robert Smith' but were collaborations...

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  26. Saw this story on pitchfork.com...so interested to see how it turns out...excited!

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  27. PS: In Roger's Disintegration reflection: Burton wanted the cure to do the Edward soundtrack....that would have been very cool...

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  28. i think this is nice news. To be honest i didn't even take a look at the other names of bands on that list, either way it dosen't make a difference if they're 'not so good'..i don't think they are in the film music.. as Craig said, anyway the cover songs are probably..promo stuff for the audience attention.

    I like Tim burton films, and I also like Alice in wonderland, as a child and grown up I've always related to that story. :)

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  29. i think this is going to be terribly cute. terribly. it's such a robert-y sort of song, too. :)


    the rest of the album looks like fresh hell though. can't win em all.

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  30. I'm not gonna question the how or why or who of this, I am just gonna be excited that there is a Robert recording on it's way.

    And let's all be honest, the album could have Nana Mouskouri on it and we all would still buy it.

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  31. URGH I'm uber excited for Robert's contribution, it sounds like it's gonna be fantastic, but wow.... I hope you don't have to buy the entire album cause the rest of it's sh*te. Horrifying. That's prolly to get the teenies to watch and pay for the soundtrack too though *grimace*

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  32. Well, l don't know if l WOULD buy it if it had Nana Mouskouri on it.. :p
    l mean someone has to draw the line somewhere, Elise. If they just throw anyone into the loop next thing you know Michael George will want to be on there!!

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  33. robert...alice...a good advice...tears...lost in a forest...
    hggsfhjlöjkökjlukygt !!!!!omg!
    Today is a good day.

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  34. speak for yourself altr2elise

    we're not all sycophants

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  35. @ Keith - I'm not a sycophant, just a completist. I'll be the first to say it is terrible, if I don't like it when I hear it.

    @ Notherbob - I think I would prefer Nana to Michael George :)

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  36. I saw the 3D trailer of Alice and it looks awesome.....

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  37. @ altr2elise

    fair enough, sorry but that's the way you came across.

    I used to be a completist until they released Hynogogic States

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  38. No problems, Keith. I understand where you were coming from.... and I totally agree with Hypnagogic States.

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  39. They better not dare put any of those H. States tracks on any kind of MIXED UP 2.

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  40. Yikes... how many years did Paul Mac get for butchering PoY? As for the Alice OST - thanks to iTunes for making it possible to buy single album tracks...

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  41. @ Elise: *HIDES* I like Hypnogogic States.. particularly Pete Wentz' version of The Perfect Boy.. Then again I like Chili Mussels so l think we'll just agree to disagree on that one.. ;)

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  42. @Notherbob - perhaps I should give Hypnagogic States another chance... which is one more chance than I would ever give chili mussels ;)

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  43. ooh I really like Hypnagogic States, but then again I also love the clubby, dance-y techno stuff like Junior Jack / Da Hype, Digitalism in Cairo, Speedy Jay and tons of others.

    Which is pretty funny to the Dude because I actually despise *most* techno/club/trance music. But, put Robert's voice and some Cure music in there and I'm all over it.

    It's cool that the Cure have enough range to their work that there are actually entire genres of music represented in their discography.

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  44. Hey Craig, wasn't sure where to put this so....thought you guys might want to check out the info on The Cure party that will be held in Berlin in April.

    We will celebrate the birthday of The Cure's frontman Robert Smith. But this time there will be even more. CURECONNECTIONS, the world's largest and most active international forum for all fans of The Cure will be celebrating their great meet up and add international flair. The Cure fans from all over the world will be attending and advance the party with ambiance, atmosphere and cult. At the V.C.F Club in Berlin we will celebrate in the attractive underground of Berlin's suburban railway, right between Alexanderplatzt and Hackeschen Markt in pure old-Berlin nostalgic flair, right into the wee hours of the morning.

    For more info go to:
    http://www.cureconnections.com/april-2010-berlin-a-strange-night-the-ultimate-cureconnections-meeting/7115-a-strange-night-the-ultimate-cureconnections-meeting.html

    Smooches,
    Pussycat

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  45. The only track I can tolerate is the mix of Freakshow.

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  46. Just saw the Slicing up Eyeballs article. Do they usually pinch all of their Cure news from here :P?

    Just goes to show how important CoF is to the Cure Community (Curemunity?)

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  47. No. I was actually helping them out with that over Twitter. : )

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  48. I'm kinda annoyed that other amazing artists aren't contributing to the soundtrack. Really?? AAR, 3oh3, Avril, and Robert on the same album...? hmmm....

    or is it just me?

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  49. OMG! Official Cure News! *faints* eee!

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  50. oh and I was going to comment on how interesting it is that Robert's got the saddest song on the soundtrack to cover =p

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  51. There has been a little chatter about a Glastonbury Gig. Hmm?

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  52. I am very happy to hear about this! The real Alice ( Alice Liddell) is one of my paternal ancestors. My grandmother had one of the original books but we are not sure what she did with it. I saw the 3D preview and thought it looked like a visual feast!

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  53. I assume that Tim has requested to meet and work with Robert for the longest time and he finally got the chance to speak of work/collaboration at the 2009 NME awards. The day after the awards at the O2 show, Tim was sitting in front of me! I had doubts that it was him until I approached him and asked. But from where we were sitting (which was shitty far as hell seats), why on earth did he chose to get tickets in that section. I thought Tim would be VIP in some loungy area with an awesome view. But thats great he was just like an average Cure fan sitting in a crappy area. Ofcoarse he obviously did it to avoid people noticing him. But I did :o)

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